So,
In the morning, we played the MVP Circuit Challenge at Von Baer Park in Providence. After a very short break, there was a doubles tournament at the same park. The purpose of the tournament, if you weren't able to guess from the title, was to raise funds so that permanent tees could be installed on the course. Footing is a major challenge for this course and having nice flat tee pads for the initial drive would be nice. Infinite Discs was trying to raise $1,800 to fund the materials for the tee pads. Last I heard, we had made it to $1,300 so that's pretty decent considering the small number of players that participated.
As I explained in the previous post, Von Baer is a 9 hole course. Like the singles tournament, it was made into an 18 hole course by playing one time around on the short tees and the next time around on the long tees. Most of the short tees aren't short, they're really short. My doubles partner, Curt, and I got birdies on 7 of them. We should have had 8 but on one of the shortest holes, if not the shortest, he threw it a bit long and I threw it a bit short. There's quite a drop off. In fact, the pic to the right shows the hole we should have gotten. You can't see the basket in the pic or from the tee. It's down the hill and to the left of the telephone pole, behind the trees that can be seen just over the guy's right shoulder. If you over throw the basket by 30 feet, you're very likely to end up down by the parking lot. I over compensated and threw it way short. Curt was bolder and his disc barely hung on to the edge of the hill leading down to the parking lot. It made for awkward footing for the putt. Awkward footing is the theme of Von Baer Park.
We also didn't birdie #7. It's probably the longest of the short tees, when you take the hill into account that you have to get your disc to the top of. Both times, I stumbled on my run up and pulled my disc to the right. It wasn't drastic but it was annoying. They really should put in some nice, flat, permanent tees here.
On the long tees, we parred everything except for getting one birdie on #4. If you hit your line on your drive, a birdie is fairly easy to get. I missed my line by about 6 inches and kicked left into some trees. If it was singles, I would have most likely gotten par because it would have taken me a shot just to get back out to the fairway with very little advancement toward the basket. Luckily, Curt hit his line and we got our birdie.
We were close enough for a birdie on #6 except that we were behind some trees and the footing was...awkward. I tried kneeling to go low under a couple of trees that made an upside down V. I kept sliding past my lie as I tried to get positioned. I finally managed to stay balanced but I couldn't really get any kind of throw going with such an awkward stance. Curt tried leaning way out to the right but his arm hit a branch on his throw, stealing all the power from the shot.
Our second shot on #7 was on the side of a hill with about a 45 degree slope of long, dead grass. It means that just standing still is a challenge. Standing still and trying to generate power for a throw is even more challenging. The equal and opposite reaction means that some of the power may end up pushing you down the hill and that power loss will mean a short shot. Not only that, but even on shorter shots, I like to take one step into my throw. I will stand still when I get within about 50 feet of the basket but outside of that, it just feels natural for me to take one step to throw the disc. That is not an option when you have to pound your heels into the hill just to get enough footing to stand still for the throw.
Hole # 9 is much the same except worse. Imagine standing on the side of a hill in a gravel pit and trying to throw your disc 100 feet to the basket. I slipped and my disc fell way short. Curt made it to the top of the hill to save our par. One of our opponents went sliding down the hill on his ass for about 50 feet. He wasn't throwing but was trying to get to his disc.
Because of the shotgun start, hole #8 was the last hole for our card. We were winning our card by 1 stroke. Their first throw went down a cliff and would not be used unless the second guy somehow did worse. His shot was scary in how close it came to the edge of the cliff but it stayed up on top. Both Curt and I threw what looked like perfect throws. There were the perfect line to birdie the hole but when we walked up to the discs, we found that we had both thrown them short. We both tried to hit the basket with extra long putts but both missed by inches. Their first throw hit the basket, not in, but hit the outside of the basket. The second guy took some extra time lining up his putt and nailed it in the heart, tying up the score.
Curt and I ended up tied for 3rd with those guys. As much as this course messes with how I throw, we had a lot of fun and made some great progress financially to getting permanent tees installed.